Film (31 min.) ‘Our Lady of Mercy - patron saint festival of Carhuaz (Peru) [youtube] 

Sound selection (34 tracks) [youtube] 

This book addresses the social context of music and dance of the population of Callejón de Huaylas, an Andean valley in Peru. It describes and analyzes the connection between music and dance, people, and social events. The musical instruments, the repertoire and the lyrics of the songs were studied as part of - and reflection of - society, as well as the artists, their audience, and the events during which they met.

The research took place in 1980-198 and was carried out with a grant from the Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical Research (WOTRO).

A book entitled ‘Music and Dance of Indians and Mestizos in an Andean Valley of Peru’ (366 pages) was published by Eburon, Delft, in 1985.

Given the subject and methodology of the research, the audiovisual material that accompanies it (34 musical examples, a series of 100 slides, and a 30-minute film) is considered an essential part of the book.

Music and dance are different means of language: being non-verbal, they constitute different communication channels, to be registered by means other than writing.

In 2017, the English text and the audiovisual material were digitised for online access under the Creative Commons license and published on the Internet Archive. This non-profit organization is building a digital library of websites and other cultural artifacts.

In 2024, based on the work done in 2017, the English text was translated into Spanish using AI-based ‘Reverso’ software, and corrected with the help of manuals such as “Map of musical instruments of popular use in Peru” (National Institute of Culture, 1978) for musical terms. To make the final edition in Spanish as useful as possible, hyperlinks have been added for direct access to the audiovisual material described in the text.

The translated edition was a major effort, which I could not have done without the help of Ludwig Pesch, musician and ethnomusicologist.

https://archive.org/details/musica-y-danza-de-indios-y-mestizos-en-un-valle-andino-del-peru/Musica-y-danza-indios-mestizos-Peru_E-den-Otter/mode/2up

Elisabeth den Otter studied cultural anthropology at the University of Leiden from 1972 till 1979. She specialized in the performing arts (music, song, dance, puppetry) of non-western peoples, as well as audiovisual anthropology. She did fieldwork in Peru, Brasil, Birma and Mali.

From 1988 till 2003 she was Curator of the Department of Ethnomusicology of the Tropenmuseum (Royal Tropical Institute) Amsterdam.

From 2003, she has produced several audio-CDs and DVDs with documentary films on her label Samaké Records; some of these are available on her website (www.elisabethdenotter.nl) which includes articles, photo and video galleries, and several e-books to download for free.

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